Smoke
by Author-chan
Summary: In the fiery chaos of the Bakumatsu, no one knew who to trust and the truth was never what it appeared to be. Saito reflects on his life in the Shinsengumi and realizes nothing is black and white and everything is still enshrouded in smoke...


Author-chan's notes: Hey everyone! Here's another vigilante installment/companion piece to "Taste" by yours truly.

Disclaimer- A-chan does not own Rurouni Kenshin. If she did, well let's just say the series would be longer…much longer…

Smoke 

Saito's POV

Aku Soku Zan. Three simple words that sum up an ideal. It was a belief men fought for, a truth men lived by.

A principle men died by.

In the chaos of the Bakumatsu it was a code that dictated lives. It brought men, who, in other aspects, were very different with contradicting views of the world, together and made them comrades at arms.

We were the Shinsengumi.

We were the police force given the duty to patrol the streets of Kyoto during the turbulent times of the Bakumatsu. We were the ones who defended the city against evil.

Us.

The Shinsengumi.

The Wolves of Mibu.

The Shinsengumi had ten squads that were led by ten captains. In turn, the entire Shinsengumi was led by our commander and vice-commanders. At the height of our power we had over three hundred members. Over three hundred men followed the code of "Kill Evil Instantly." And we followed our code to the letter.

Even if it meant killing our own.

Some called our code harsh. Others called it misguided.

We called it justice. The only justice we knew.

The Bakumatsu, if it were to be summed up in one word, would be known as chaos. Or madness. Yare, yare, call it what you will. To survive people had to change, put on masks and never take them off. Men had to become their masks and forget their former selves. And then their pasts became dead to them.

Heh. People in this Meiji Era talk about the "Ghosts of the Bakumatsu". The more correct term would be the "Ghosts from _before_ the Bakumatsu".

In the Bakumatsu, in the blood-soaked streets, in the shadowy alleyways where no man knew who was friend and who was foe, the belief of the Shinsengumi held together our minds, our spirits, and our honor.

Aku Soku Zan.

The Shinsengumi fought against the Ishin Shishi soldiers. We upheld not only our own honor, but also the honor of both our country and our shogun. We cut down the Ishin Shishi scum easily. The killing had become routine…it had been routine for a long time. Slashing though Ishin soldiers, stabbing Imperialist bodyguards, torturing captives; it all became routine for me, as it became a routine for the others in the Shinsengumi. However, it was a routine that carried out our purpose, our justice.

Aku Soku Zan.

Even the Ishin Shishi's best warriors couldn't stand up against our justice driven blades. Until he came.

Hitokiri Battousai.

We of the Shinsengumi first heard of him through rumors on the streets of Kyoto. We dismissed the reports immediately. There were too many contradicting reports, reports made by only the superstitious. Some said the hitokiri was a demon. Others said he was a madman. And yet others whispered that Battousai was a vengeful ghost. And the abilities he was rumored to have: speed that matched the gods, a sword that never missed, being able to appear suddenly and then vanish in thin air. More likely than not this "Hitokiri Battousai" was some sort of rumor cooked up by the Ishin Shishi to frighten the people. So we dismissed the rumors and gave it not a second thought.

That was until the rumors hit close to home.

One of our spies told us that there was an influential Ishin Shishi member of the Choshu clan in Kyoto. This Ishin Shishi was, according to our spy, nearly as important as Katsura Kogoro. If not, he was just as important as Katsura. This one man, whose name we were not given, was the Ishin Shishi's trump card, their new hitokiri. So we made preparations. Some of the men in my squad, men I had all personally trained and deemed worthy of my respect as warriors, were sent to ambush this "trump card". All of us, from Hijikata to Okita to Harada to even myself, believed these men could handle the mission. After all it was just one man.

Then none of them came back.

"Maybe this Ishin guy really is good," the whispers among the men swirled.

Idiots. No one man could stand up to my hand-picked squad.

Even so, Okita persuaded me into going with him and his unit to look for the missing men. It didn't take us long to locate my missing squad members.

Or at least their unmoving corpses.

All of them were dead. Each of my men had been killed instantly in a single stoke each. All the slashes on their bodies were precise and clean. The killer had even sliced through my men's weapons and bones with his powerful strokes. And judging by how warm the bodies were, they had not been dead long. We had just missed their killer.

It seemed that this "Hitokiri Battousai" really could disappear like smoke in the wind.

That was not the last we heard of Battousai. We had reports of various assassinations, all done with the same quick, efficient style that had sliced down my men. Nearly all the victims of this hitokiri had died with a single stroke, and all had died quickly. There were never any witnesses. Battousai slaughtered them all, in his rapid style. The Shinsengumi always tried to anticipate where the mysterious assassin would strike next, but we would always arrive a moment too late.

Battousai wasn't just a demon; he was a loose cannon.

One night the fifth, sixth, and seventh units were out on patrol. The rest of us were at the headquarters waiting for our shifts. Harada, Nagakura, Okita, and I, the three best swordsmen in the Shinsengumi along with the best spear wielder, were gathered drinking sake to past the time. Harada and Okita had a Go board in front of them and they occasionally placed down a stone.

"He sure is merciful, I'll give him that," Harada commented off-handedly that night.

"Who?" Okita asked, placing a stone on the board before taking a sip of alcohol from his cup.

"Battousai," Harada answered, "I mean think about it! He kills all his victims quickly. It's almost like he doesn't want anyone to feel any pain. He doesn't torture them, unlike certain people I might mention…"

"Unless you wish to be on the receiving end of my katana, I suggest you shut up, Harada. You're giving me a headache," I growled, drinking some sake.

"Chikuso, Saito!" Nagakura swore, "You always get cranky when you drink!"

"Maa, maa!" Okita laughed, waving his hand in a peacemaking gesture, "Be nice! Tonight is one of our rare moments off!" Okita flashed us a wide, happy smile, one even wider than his usual ones.

Okita always was a happy drunk.

"Do you think we'll ever get to meet Battousai-san?" Okita asked, putting down another stone on the Go board. He was so drunk, he didn't even realize that it was Harada's turn.

"I hope so," Harada grunted, his infamous bamboo twig bobbing up and down in his mouth as he spoke, "If we do, I'm going to be the one to smash his face in."

"Not if I get to him first," I smirked.

"I think it would be rather fun to meet Battousai-san," Okita smiled putting down another stone without waiting for Harada to move first, "I've been looking forward to meeting such a skilled swordsman in battle."

"So how about a bet?" Nagakura suggested, "First one to kill Battousai gets to kill Battousai."

"Good idea," Okita nodded, drinking again from his sake cup.

"Ahou," I sneered. They really were intoxicated. But I nodded my agreement anyway and took another gulp of sake. Battousai would die by my blade and my blade alone. I do not tolerate demons that terrorize Kyoto or kill members of the Shinsengumi.

Months passed. It wasn't long until the event that would change the lives of the entire Shinsengumi took place. The nightmare that came to life to stop an even worse nightmare from taking place. It was an event that would be remembered for generations to come.

The Ikedaya Incident.

We had surprised the Ishin Shishi gathered there. It didn't take long for us to dispose of the anti-shogunate dogs. I snorted at the blood-covered corpses that had once been Ishin Shishi. To believe these fools wanted to burn down Kyoto…To do such an act would be unforgivable. They were evil, and hence they had to die.

Of all the Ishin Shishi gathered at the Ikedaya there was one important one missing from the mass of the dead.

Katsura Kogoro, leader of the Choshu Ishin Shishi.

After Ikedaya, Katsura seemed to just disappear. So did Battousai. We all had our guesses what happed to Katsura and Battousai. Some said that Katsura really was there at Ikedaya and was killed. We dismissed that one easily: we knew Katsura's face well enough. Battousai was a different matter all together. We had no idea what he looked like, so it was possible the assassin had been killed at Ikedaya. We knew Battousai was in the area at the time; we found several bodies with Battousai's trademark slashes splayed across them. There was even a rumor drifting around that Katsura and Battousai was the same man!

Preposterous.

But that there was a thought that disturbed me, what if Battousai really had died at Ikedaya? Then there would be no chance for us to fight him if he was dead. What did Battousai look like? After all, the rumors made Battousai into a ten-foot demon that breathed fire.

It was the most moronic thing I ever heard.

Six months passed. The Ishin Shishi still caused trouble here and there. We dealt with it easily. The Ishin had gotten a new hitokiri, who used a different style than Battousai. This new hitokiri didn't kill as…neatly…as Battousai did. But that didn't make him any less powerful as Battousai. However, the mystery of what happened to Battousai continued to linger in the minds of the Shinsengumi. Harada grumbled about how the four of us, himself, Okita, Nagakura, and I, would never be able to complete our bet on who would kill Battousai. We all thought Battousai was dead.

But something told me that Battousai was still alive, that he survived the execution at Ikedaya. I don't know why I thought that. Did it have something to do with my warrior instincts? Or was it that brief glimpse I caught at Ikedaya of a woman in white being led/dragged away by a flash of red?

That image was like fire and smoke to me. A quick bright red flame followed by ethereal white smoke.

A quick fire and smoke. That concept seemed to symbolize the Ishin Shishi so well. The men gathered at the Ikedaya wanted to set Kyoto ablaze, but their plans turned to smoke when we intervened.

And soon, the bright flaming passion of their resistance against justice would die and become smoke, as we, the Shinsengumi, destroyed it and brought forth the justice that was meant to be.

If the Ishin Shishi were fire and smoke, then we of the Shinsengumi would play their opposites of water and rain.

Six months passed since Ikedaya, and still there was no word of Katsura…or Battousai for that matter.

Then it happened. Rumors that Katsura was back in Kyoto began to circulate. And we of the Shinsengumi began to work harder than ever.

Katsura had slipped thorough our hands once. It was not allowed to happen again.

We set up plans. It took us weeks to do so, but we had everything prepared. Every detail, every possible move from the enemy, was plotted out to make sure that our carefully placed trap would spring perfectly. Katsura's capture (or death) was assured to us.

The day before we were going to capture Katsura, Okita and I went out into the streets of Kyoto. For once, we weren't wearing out uniforms, but rather regular street clothes. It was Okita's idea. He mentioned something about wanting to be inconspicuous or something like that.

Contrary to popular belief, Okita was superstitious. Not overly so, like Harada was, but enough. Before a mission of great importance, Okita would buy flowers for the men who had died in previous missions for the Shinsengumi. He babbled something about praying to their souls to watch over us during the assignment.

Yare, yare, it wasn't my business why he would do something like that.

So here we were. Two of the captains of the Shinsengumi dressed up like civilians to buy flowers. I don't remember how Okita made me agree to come with him. Something about a favor, I think. Okita was adamant on purchasing irises. He insisted that since I thought of the Ishin Shishi as being fire and smoke, we should buy flowers that were as blue as water and loved the rain.

I should have never told him about my metaphor regarding the Ishin Shishi.

We wandered about Kyoto until we came across a woman selling flowers. We quickly spotted a lone bouquet of irises among her wares, and quickly bought them. A young man wearing a wide-brimmed hat nearby saw us holding the bundle of blossoms, a flash of disappointment crossing his light-colored eyes.

"Is there something the matter, sir?" Okita asked, noticing the youth's expression. The young man blinked his oddly tinted eyes at being addressed to, looking surprised. Then a sad smile graced his features.

"My late wife loved irises," the unnamed man (no, he was nothing but a boy with that childish face) murmured.

"'Wife'?" I raised my eyebrow at that. He looked too young to have a wife, yet alone be a widower. Even though the wicked scar marring his cheek added some age to his features, this "widower" was only a boy, a child.

"Aa," the boy murmured, his eyes clouding over slightly. The vision he made was so pathetic, like a wet, abandoned cat, cast out from the world. The ginger colored strand of hair that peaked out from under his hat only emphasized this image.

"Then perhaps you need these more than we do," Okita said, pushing the bundle of flowers into the young man's arms.

"Demo!" the boy protested, trying to hand the flowers back.

"I insist!" Okita said with a blinding smile. Despite the gentleness of his features, my comrade had a touch of iron in his words. The boy before us blinked his wide eyes, looking confused.

"Thank you," the stranger murmured, stroking the flowers gently with a too pale hand.

His skin was as pale as smoke.

And his hair that peaked out from under the hat was as red as fire.

Fire and smoke holding fragile blossoms that loved the water.

How ironic.

"Perhaps if we bump into each other again, we can share a drink, ne?" Okita suggested, a friendly smile stretched over his features.

"Why not now?" I asked, eyeing this quiet stranger, trying to judge him as a swordsman. His aura was elusive…weak. He was no swordsman…unless he was masking his presence. Meanwhile, Okita laughed at my statement.

"You like to drink too much, Saito-san," Okita laughed, "One would think you would die with a sake jug in one hand and a sword in the other!"

"I-I can't," the young man murmured, starting to edge away, "I have to be somewhere…"

"At least introduce yourself before you go!" Okita protested, "I am Okita Souji, and this is Saito Hajime."

"Shinsengumi," the young man breathed, his eyes flickering strangely.

So…this brattling had a touch of fire in his eyes as well…

"Hai!" Okita chirped, looking as cheerful as ever, "But we're off duty at the moment." The young man studied us carefully, judging us. It was odd.

Were his eyes a different color before?

"Himura," the boy said, giving us a name, "And I thank you for the flowers."

We had parted ways after that, and I had been so sure we would never see that Himura boy again. It wasn't until after the boy was out of sight when I realized that there was something off about his scent.

Blood. That child reeked of it.

Okita and I headed back to HQ and prepared ourselves for the upcoming fight. This was it. We were going to capture that wily Choshu leader at last. Nothing could have stood in our way, considering we were dispatching two of the best units (Okita's and mine) to do the job.

However, if I were a superstitious man, I would have realized that our mission was cursed before it even began.

Okita had given away blossoms that loved the water (flowers meant for our fallen comrades) to a blood covered child made of smoke and flames. To a superstitious man, Okita had symbolically given away our edge…our water to counteract with the flames of the Choshu.

And he didn't buy replacement flowers for our fallen.

But that night, during the ambush on Katsura, neither Okita nor I thought of such superstitious nonsense. We had no time to as we commanded our troops to storm the meeting that Katsura was attending.

Two units would be overkill. Only one could have done it. As it were, half of the men would have to stay out of the main fighting considering that sixty troops was too much, too many men to fit in the tiny meeting place. Thirty went in with Okita while the rest stayed outside with me. We fully expected that the others would not need our help, and would come out of the building, with the captured Katsura in tow. So when I felt the ki of our men simply be cut down along with the sensation of several Ishin Shishi fleeing the premises, I knew that there was something wrong.

We charged in quickly, headless of the consequences. Bodies littered our path. And each one of those corpses wore a Shinsengumi uniform, the once light blue and white stained brilliant crimson.

Red, the color of blood.

Red, the color of flames.

Red, the contrast of the Shinsengumi blue.

I slashed though a door with my katana. Behind it, Okita was battling with a red-haired youth wearing Choshu colors. And Okita was…for the first time since I had known him…losing.

Okita blocked the youth's blindingly fast battoujutsu move, barely. However, not even Okita could have stopped the iron sheath that followed it, not with all his strength being used to counter the lethal katana that wanted to drink from his throat. Okita was thrown across the room, as if he was a rag doll.

Battousai…master of battoujutsu.

So that bloody hitokiri wasn't dead.

"The boy from the market," I murmured, taking in the sight of the redhead who had knocked Okita aside. I readied my sword, prepared to launch an attack. However, a slight spike in ken ki caused me to pause.

"Keep out of this, Saito-san," Okita's voice hissed, as my fellow captain stood up, his katana in his hand. Okita's eyes were narrowed, hard as ice, yet a slight smirk danced across his face.

I had nearly forgotten. Okita was a demon wolf too.

I was no fool. If I had tried to interfere then, Okita would have skewered me.

"Okita Souji, first captain of the Shinsengumi," the whispery voice of the boy from the market murmured.

"Hitokiri Battousai," Okita countered, grinning manically before launching his attack.

A flash of silver. The clang of blades. Then red, then blue. Sweat, blood. But no death.

Not that night.

Before the fight ended, a whistle from outside interrupted the two combatants. And before we knew it, Battousai, the widower boy from the market who had called himself Himura, had disappeared.

Like smoke.

That was not the last time we encountered Himura Battousai. Okita, Nagakura, even that loudmouth Harada, fought with him.

But he fought with Okita and me the most.

Strong swordsmen always attracted each other to do battle. And Okita and I were the strongest. But as time wore on, Okita became ill, his lungs collapsing within him, causing him to cough up red, red blood.

I hate the color red.

I noticed Okita's illness, despite how he tried to hide it. Hell, Battousai even felt it. He stopped directing most of his attacks at Okita and instead aimed for me. That was good. That meant I was more likely to kill him, and win that bet us captains had forged so long ago.

As the war waged on, I began to wonder. The Ishin Shishi only seemed to get stronger each day, and Battousai still lived. Were we, the Shinsengumi the water that would quell the flames of the revolution, the fire of the Ishin Shishi? Or were we made of stone and wood, to be burned away by this new era the rebels were paving and then left behind as relics of a fallen past?

No matter how uncertain I had become about the future of the Shinsengumi, I knew that our justice, our motto would live and thrive, like a vine of ivy choking away the weeds.

Aku Soku Zan, the only constant in my life.

I wondered what purpose Battousai served with is bloody blade. In his amber eyes (which I sometimes swore were a different color from when I had first met him with the flower seller), there was something strange. None of the fanatical devotion we of the Shinsengumi displayed was there. Was the killing routine for him as it was for us in the Shinsengumi? Somehow I doubted it. The child that I had met in the market was no routine killer.

Finally, the end came into sight, though none of us knew it at the time. Toba Fushimi. The last battle of the Bakumatsu, and the first of the Boshin Wars. This was the battle that gave the Ishin victory and sealed the fate of the Shogunate, of the Shinsengumi. It seemed to last forever, but at the same time, only a moment. Blood and death danced together to a tune known as combat. My katana skewered no small amount of men, but I did not count how many. There was no point to.

As I cut my way through the rebel ranks, I found myself in the middle of another duel between Okita and Battousai. By the looks of it, they had just begun. Before either one of them could attack, I ordered Okita to step aside.

I knew I was overstepping my authority to do so. Although Okita and I were both unit captains, he had seniority over me, having been with the Shinsengumi longer, since it had first started. But Okita was ill. And to go against Battousai, who was in his prime at the moment, would have been suicide.

If Okita wanted to kill himself, then he should commit seppuku, not launch himself at a demon.

"I, Saito Hajime, captain of the third Shinsengumi unit, will kill the Hitokiri Battousai!"

And with that, I charged at the flame-haired demon/hitokiri/man/boy, staring at his flaming amber eyes as I did so.

I remembered then. When he had caressed those flowers he said his wife had loved, his eyes were different.

Hair as red as flames, skin as pale as smoke…but his eyes…on that day, they were the blue-violet of irises, the flower that loved water.

I was a fool. The distraction of my thoughts cost me dearly. Battousai had blocked my first strike, and then my second. My third attack was parried too. However, I deflected his attacks as well.

We were at a stalemate, until…

"I have no time for this," Battousai murmured, as he jumped back, bringing his sword down to the ground as he landed.

"Do Ryu Sen!"

An explosion of dirt and rock shot its way towards me. I was blown back and blinded for a moment, the debris from Battousai's attack digging into my arms, and making me bleed. But I didn't die. I didn't even pass out.

When I finally looked up again, Battousai was gone, off to fight in another part of the battle.

That bastard! He left our fight unfinished!

And worse, it was his side that won the battle, and ultimately the war, for when the smoke of the revolution had cleared, it was not the Ishin Shishi who had been snuffed out.

It was us.

The shogunate.

The Shinsengumi.

And from the ashes of the Bakumatsu the Meiji government took flight like a crowing phoenix.

And one by one, the Shinsengumi died. But I lived on to see this new "Meiji Era".

I became a different man in this Meiji Era, this era ruled by my enemies. A man who could not change with the times was doomed to die. And I could not die. To die was to allow my justice to die, to allow the Shinsengumi to die.

I became a police officer and a spy for the government. A spy that could disappear like a puff of smoke. And, replacing the abandoned sake I had once loved, cigarettes became my constant companion, to remember that the stone like strength of the Shinsengumi fell to the dancing fire and smoke of the Ishin Shishi, of Battousai.

Despite my new occupation, I remained a wolf, a Miburo, a captain of the Shinsengumi. I would be until the day I died.

But part of me still had to change. I knew now that the Shinsengumi was not the water that paralleled the flames of the Ishin Shishi. We were stone, strong, powerful, and unmoving, but in the end defeated. I could not live in the Meiji as stone and wood, not completely. Part of me had to become fire and smoke like my enemies who I now served.

I was fire and stone, blended together, striving to survive in this new world. I was a different man than I had been.

So many things changed. I became Fujita Goro and cast aside the name Saito Hajime.

In this quieter Meiji Era I was allowed to marry a woman who became my hidden strength.

Tokio.

She bore me a son, and was expecting a second.

Part of me was content in this Meiji world. There was a part of me that wanted to lay down my sword and put my ghosts to rest. That part of me could have spent eternity in Tokio's arms, worrying about nothing except my family.

But when I heard that Battousai was still alive, I forgot about the new world. Battousai, a ghost from the Bakumastu. A true soul of flames and smoke. A killer, one I would have done anything to fight against.

I became Saito Hajime, third captain of the Shinsengumi, once more.

Wholly. Completely. Like I had been in the Bakumatsu.

Ten years after Toba Fushimi, I faced Battousai once more, eager to fight the amber-eyed demon I remembered. Instead, I looked into blue-violet eyes, the ones I had seen on Himura's face the first time we met in the market place. And I hated them. Those were the eyes of a sad child, not a demonic hitokiri.

It seems that I wasn't the only one who fell under the sweet spell of the peaceful Meiji Era.

So when I confronted him in the Kamiya dojo I felt sickened when I saw those blue-violet eyes. A child's eyes. An innocent's eyes. Not a killer.

I wanted to fight the killer, damn it!

I wanted to wake Battousai from his slumber, just as I had awoken Saito Hajime from Fujita Goro.

I attacked the man calling himself Himura Kenshin, even though it was not a demon facing me anymore but the child I had met in the market who had stroked the water loving iris while talking fondly about his dead wife.

I attacked him until I found him, the hitokiri buried deep inside.

Ah, Battousai. It had been so long since I had seen those amber orbs of yours. Ten years is so long.

Now die under my motto.

Aku Soku Zan.

But he didn't die, and neither did I for that matter. We were interrupted. Our ten year fight had been interrupted! But more than that, we were forced to work together, to defeat this Shishio Makoto.

Shishio Makoto, now he was a flame wreathed demon, even more so than Battousai.

Or perhaps Battousai was never a flame at all.

I had to laugh at that. The Ishin Shishi, I thought they were made of fire and smoke. But Battousai, Battousai _wasn't_.

He was water, flowing with the times. He rushed in violently if needed, as he did in the Bakumastu, but watching him here, in the Meiji, I realized he was content simply trickling his way along, like a quiet stream.

I suppose that is why he was able to defeat the stones that made up the Shogunate and the Shinsengumi. Water eats away at stone. And water definitely quenches flames, just as Battousai shut up that loudmouth Shishio.

The fight with Shishio wasn't the last time I found myself allied with Battousai. But eventually, my business with Battousai was finally done. The Bakumastu had ended, Shishio was in hell, and Enishi had disappeared. I had even turned down Himura's invitation to a duel. There was no point to fight it. The man I wanted to fight, the hitokiri, was no longer present. Battousai had buried himself in Himura's mind and tucked himself in, like a child ready to rest after a long day. That was what Himura was now, a child of the Meiji.

Sometimes I wonder if I too should rest, lay down the sword, and bury Saito Hajime, third captain of the Shinsengumi. I could become Fujita Goro, and play that fool's mask from then on.

But then I remember my duty, my motto, the justice of the Shinsengumi.

Aku Soku Zan.

It was a principle, my principle to die for.

For the souls of the wolves who had fallen, I would fight and never rest.

Fujita Goro was a lie, a persona I made up. When I look back, I wonder how I could have deluded myself, even for a moment.

Not even Tokio had been fooled by Fujita.

Yes, it was true that I was no longer completely the same man I had been. But I was not Fujita Goro either. In all that mattered, I had not changed.

I was still a wolf, a captain of the Shinsengumi. I would still follow my code. I would still serve as the sword of justice. Evil would be eradicated.

Sometimes though when I close my eyes, I would remember a time when I believed Battousai was the fire and I was the water, even though the opposite is the reality.

Other times, when I close my eyes, I think of drowning in water and never waking up, of quenching the flames of passionate battle within me. I could have rest, true rest.

What a sweet dream.

What an impossible dream.

My purpose will never give me rest, for evil still festers in this world. And I will slay it, cut it down with my blade, viciously, unmercifully.

Forever, until the day I die.

**OWARI**

_Glossary-_

Aku Soku Zan- "Evil Swiftly Slay" or "Kill Evil Instantly"; the motto of the Shinsengumi

Yare, yare- (rough translation) "oh well" or "oh bother" (sort of like a verbal shrug)

Go- a board game played between two people; the object is to capture your opponent's stones (anyone read/watch "Hikaru no Go"?)

Sake- rice wine

Katana- a Japanese sword

Chikuso- all purpose curse word

Maa, maa- (rough translation) "now, now" or "calm down" (sort of like a verbal peacemaking gesture; Kenshin uses it all the time)

-san- an honorific placed at the end of a person's name; similar to "Mr." or "Ms."

Ahou- "idiot" or "moron"

Aa- "yeah"

Demo- "but"

ne- "right?"

Hai- "yes"

Ken ki- a swordsman's aura

Seppuku- Japanese ritual suicide (FYI, another, cruder, term of seppuku is "hara-kiri")

Owari- "end"

_Culture/Story/History Notes_

Bakumatsu- The last chaotic days of the Tokugawa shogunate

Shinsengumi- Like Saito mentioned in the beginning of the fic, the Shinsengumi was a law keeping group in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu who were loyal to the shogunate; at its height it had over 300 members which were split into 10 units, so about thirty men in each unit; the Shinsengumi, which had been commissioned by the Military Commissioner of Kyoto, was led by Kondo Isami and was originally based in Mibu village; nicknames of the Shinsengumi included "the Wolves of Mibu" and the "Miburo"

"We followed our code to the letter. Even if it meant killing our own"- The Shinsengumi had a harsh code for their members to follow:

1. Follow the path of the samurai.

2. Do not desert the Shinsengumi.

3. The raising of private funds is not permitted.

4. No dealings with others' litigations except for that of the Shinsengumi.

5. No engaging in private duels.

Any violation of any of the rules resulted in seppuku. Of course there were those who tried to escape seppuku and instead were hunted down by others of the Shinsengumi, usually Saito. As you might recall in RK, Kenshin mentioned that Saito played the part of assassin of the Shinsengumi. That was historically true. The most famous assassination by Saito was that of Ito Kashitaro, another captain of the Shinsengumi who tried to desert along with several other members

Ishin Shishi- nickname of the supporters of the emperor and enemies of the shogunate during the Bakumatsu; the Ishin Shishi were made up of the Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa, and other clans

Shogunate (Tokugawa)- from 1600 to 1868 the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan making the emperor a virtual figurehead; it is the Tokugawa shogunate that is in control of the government during the Bakumatsu and to whom the Shinsengumi and other shogunate forces served and supported

Hitokiri Battousai- Himura Kenshin's nickname during the Bakumatsu; "Hitokiri" is a title meaning "manslayer" or "assassin"; "Battousai" refers to Kenshin's ability to use battoujutsu, a technique that when the user unsheathes his sword, the sword's speed is accelerated causing the user to kill his opponent in an instant

Choshu- one of the clans that made up the Ishin Shishi; Battousai and Shishio were both hitokiri for the Choshu clan

Katsura Kogoro- the leader of the Choshu Ishin Shishi; Katsura was one of the three great leaders of the Meiji Restoration including Okubo and Saigo; Katsura was the one who hired Kenshin to become Hitokiri Battousai; six months before the timeline of RK started, Katsura had died of a brain tumor

Hijikata Toshizo- Vice-commander of the Shinsengumi; notorious for his stoic personality and fierceness in battle, he was nicknamed the "Demon of the Shinsengumi"; Hijikata is credited with having drafted the laws of the Shinsengumi; he was also the last Shinsengumi to die in battle

Okita Souji- First captain of the Shinsengumi; Okita was one of the first members of the Shinsengumi, even though he was one of the youngest (among the captains, he was second youngest after Todo Heisuke, eighth captain); Okita is credited with being the best swordsman in the Shinsengumi, if not, the best of his time period; as hinted in the fic, Okita contracted tuberculosis, and died of the disease in 1868 at the age of 25

Harada Sanosuke- Tenth captain of the Shinsengumi; unlike other members of the Shinsengumi, Harada was a spear wielder, and was very skilled at it; he was born into a peasant family and because of that he was very kind to his underlings; it is historically accepted that Harada died in the Ueno War during the Boshin Wars, but popular belief has it that Harada escaped to Manchuria to start his own bandit army; as many RK fans know, Harada was the model for Sagara Sanosuke, so in this fic, Harada is very much like Sagara Sanosuke, including the bamboo twig that he chews on that parallels Sagara's fishbone; Watsuki even draws Harada with the bamboo twig in his mouth

Nakagura Shinpachi- Second captain of the Shinsengumi; Like Okita and Saito, Nakagura was very skilled with a sword, in fact it is these three that make up the strongest swordsmen in the Shinsengumi; Nakagura, along with Saito, was one of the few Shinsengumi that survived the Meiji Era; Nakagura ended up settling in Hokkaido teaching kendo at a prison, he also wrote a book on his time in the Shinsengumi, _Shinsengumi Tenmatsu Ki_ (A Full Account of the Shinsengumi), there in Hokkaido; He died in 1915

"He (Battousai) doesn't torture them (his victims), unlike certain people I might mention"- Harada here is comparing Battousai with Saito, which explains why Saito acted all cranky when Harada says this; besides being the Shinsengumi's assassin, Saito also tortured prisoners for information

"Chikuso, Saito! You always get cranky when you drink!"- In RK, Saito gave up drinking during the Meiji Era since, according to him, drinking caused him to want to kill someone and instead became a heavy smoker; Saito historically was a heavy drinker, he died of a gastric ulcer caused by too much drinking in 1915 at the age of 72; there are also some historical documents that said that Saito became "a different man" when he drank

Ikedaya Incident- in June 5,1864 several members of the Ishin Shishi (particularly the Choshu clan) gathered at the Ikedaya Inn to plan out burning the city of Kyoto and during the chaos, they would kidnap the emperor and kill off main shogunate officials; however, the Shinsengumi found out about the meeting and ambushed the plotters,

Irises- As you might remember from the OAV, the innkeeper, Okami, told Tomoe that irises flourish best in the rain, even if that rain was bloody; I know that Tomoe's perfume was white plum, but since Tomoe used irises in her flower arrangements (along with what Okami told her) I assumed she liked irises as well

Toba Fushimi- This was the first battle of the Boshin Wars, and ultimately the deciding battle; after Toba Fushimi the Ishin Shishi forces dominated and the shogunate would never be able to stop them; Toba Fushimi marks the end of the Bakumatsu and the beginning of the Meiji Era

Boshin War(s) - a series of wars/battles that took place from 1868-1869 between the new Meiji government and the old shogunate

"I, Saito Hajime, captain of the third Shinsengumi unit, will kill the Hitokiri Battousai!"- Readers of the manga will recognize this quote directly from vol. 7

Do Ryu Sen- "Earth Dragon Flash"; a Hiten Mitsurugi move where the user brings his sword down to the ground and manipulates ken ki causing dirt and rubble to speed towards an opponent

Tokio- Everyone should recognize Saito's wife who is never seen in the manga but is briefly mentioned; she and Saito had three children: Tsutomu, Tsuyoshi, and Tatsuo; their eldest, Tsutomu, was born in 1876, so he's two by the time RK begins

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Author-chan's notes: FINISHED! _Collapses in exhaustion._ Damn, but these notes are long…Eh, the price of research…


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